Sacred Listening

L. Wakefield James

Description

A profound call to Christian discipleship. An intensive course in Christian faith. A creative freedom to serve God that is deeply grounded in Scripture. These are ways to describe Sacred Listening, James L. Wakefield's adaptation of the classic Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Central to the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Spiritual Exercises is a manual used to direct a month-long spiritual retreat. Now adapting these time-honored Exercises specifically for Protestant Christians, James L. Wakefield encourages readers to integrate their secular goals with their religious beliefs and helps them reflect on the life of Jesus as a model for their own discipleship. Combining scholarship with classic forms of spirituality, Sacred Listening will interest church leaders and lay Christians who want to deepen their faith.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Baker Publishing Group
• Date de parution: 01 août 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781441201164
• Langue: English

Extrait

Many people own a Bible. A lot of people read the Bible. But the task of every Bible reader is to become a Bible listener so that we can then start living the text. Ignatius of Loyola s Spiritual Exercises is one of the most influential guidebooks for directing us in listening. Sacred Listening skillfully guides us through these exercises-hopefully making listeners of us all.
Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message ; professor emeritus of spiritual theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.
I was struck by the strong, practical, experiential approach; by the way you catch the essential spirit of the Exercises and yet adapt them to today and your own Christian tradition. . . . It is 450 years since Ignatius completed the Exercises, and I am sure he is delighted by the way you bring them alive today.
Thomas Green, S.J., author, Weeds Among the Wheat (commenting on an earlier draft)
Jim Wakefield has done a great service by making the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola accessible to all Christians who are drawn to a deepening relationship with Christ. Sacred Listening offers life-changing possibilities because of its deep foundations in Scripture, prayer, and authentic engagement with similar intentional, seeking Christians.
Jeannette A. Bakke, author, Holy Invitations
I and many others have found Ignatius s Spiritual Exercises to be the most powerful tool for helping us grow in our walk with God. Wakefield masterfully captures the heart of this life-transforming method and breaks it down in a way contemporary people can understand and put into practice. In fact, I believe this is the clearest and most practical application of Ignatius s Spiritual Exercises I ve ever read. However, readers should be forewarned. In keeping with the spirit of Ignatius s exercises, this book will challenge them like few books they are likely to read. It s not for the casual reader or curiosity seeker. But for those who are hungry and ready for a life-changing encounter with the living God, I seriously doubt there is a more practical and more profound resource than this book.
Gregory A. Boyd, author, Letters from a Skeptic and Seeing Is Believing
As a Jesuit for 62 years, I have been formed by the Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, our principal founder. During 50 years of priesthood I have been privileged to direct them hundreds of times on every continent, often the entire Exercises of 30 days, and more often shorter adaptations. I rejoice, then, at the long-awaited publication of Sacred Listening: Discovering the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola , adapted especially for Protestants, by James Wakefield. Not only does Wakefield interpret this short spiritual classic excellently, he admirably adapts them for devout Protestants who cherish the essentials of their great heritage. Only one who understands and loves the deep spiritual dimensions of this heritage could have written this book. It will be for its readers, I hope, a classic manual for spiritual growth in genuine mystical prayer. May its readership continue to grow.
Armand M. Nigro, S.J., professor emeritus, Gonzaga University
James Wakefield has provided us with a remarkably helpful introduction to praying with the Spiritual Exercises , readable and eminently helpful, insightful and practical. Also notable: he builds on the best scholarship on the Exercises and makes it accessible to Christians of all traditions.
Gordon T. Smith, president, reSource Leadership International
S ACRED L ISTENING
D ISCOVERING THE S PIRITUAL E XERCISES OF I GNATIUS L OYOLA
J AMES L. W AKEFIELD
2006 by James L. Wakefield
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wakefield, James L., 1954-
Sacred listening : discovering the Spiritual exercises of Ignatius Loyola / James L. Wakefield.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. )
ISBN 10: 0-8010-6614-X (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-8010-6614-6 (pbk.)
1. Spiritual life. 2. Spiritual exercises. 3. Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint, 1491- 1556. Exercitia spiritualia. I. Ignatius, of Loyola, Saint, 1491-1556. Exercitia spiritualia. II. Title. BV4501.3.W347 2006 248.3-dc22 2006008652
Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NKJV is taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
C ONTENTS
Preface
Part One Instructions for Sacred Listening
1. An Introduction to the Spiritual Exercises
2. Making These Exercises
3. How to Keep a Spiritual Journal
4. Instructions for Listeners
Part Two Daily Assignments
The First Movement (Units 1-8)
The Second Movement (Units 9-18)
Decision-Making Unit (Optional)
The Third Movement (Units 19-20)
The Fourth Movement (Units 21-24)
Ignatian Resources
Sample Chart
Using Sacred Listening with Groups
Notes
Sacred Listening Glossary
Bibliography and Suggestions for Further Reading
P REFACE
A Testimony of Ongoing Conversion
I have always been suspicious of religion. Cynicism comes too easily to me. Although I was raised in a staunch Mormon family, I became an atheist as an early teenager. Tragic events in my family led me to seek some spiritual reality at age nineteen, and I became a Christian. After this conversion in 1973, I finished a degree in world religions and went to seminary. My life was reasonably tranquil in September of 1984. I was a pastor in my second congregation. I helped start a theological seminary, and I was experiencing substantial professional satisfaction. My mother (now an Episcopalian) asked if I would like to do the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola with a group that she was directing as part of a master s project under Father John Sheets, S.J., at Creighton University. I knew very little about the Spiritual Exercises , but I knew that they were Roman Catholic. I also remembered an article on spirituality in Discipleship Journal (a decidedly Protestant publication) reporting that the Spiritual Exercises were a great spiritual classic. 1 I finally agreed to be part of her project because I wanted to protect her from Roman Catholic mysticism. The cynic within complained bitterly!
In retrospect, I am greatly pleased the cynic lost. My experience of the Spiritual Exercises has been life changing. I found myself somewhat ruefully saying I felt I had been born again-again. Thinking back over the past twenty years, I can report four lasting benefits.
First, my relationship with the Lord is much more personal than it had been, and I pray often as I move through each day.
Second, I rediscovered that the Gospels are stories and that they communicate powerfully as such. Somewhere, in the midst of academia, the Gospels had become merely a source for teaching and preaching. Now they are filled with wonder and mystery.
Third, in the Spiritual Exercises I learned a descriptive code of rules for discerning spirits. As commonsense as these rules now seem to me, I had never made the very practical connections Ignatius points out for us. These have become foundational in my Christian walk, in my counseling, and in my teaching and preaching.
Finally, the Spiritual Exercises called me to a more physical discipleship and to a profound freedom with Christ. As I learned to pray with my imagination and my five senses, I discovered a deep desire to experience God s greater glory in this wonderful and broken world.
A Brief History of Sacred Listening
As I finished the Spiritual Exercises in the spring of 1985, I began to consider how I might adapt them for use by others who do not have access to a spiritual director. My director used a guidebook published by John A. Veltri, S.J., and based the meditations on a very literal translation of the Spiritual Exercises . 2 My experience with these guides was excellent, and yet the material as written posed many problems as I considered giving the Spiritual Exercises to leaders in Protestant congregations. I began reworking and paraphrasing the Spiritual Exercises so that they could be used by Protestant Christians with minimal supervision from a trained spiritual director. This means I have had to wrestle with the dynamics of the Exercises in sufficient depth to anticipate most of the common stumbling blocks. I have made many changes as I continue to listen and to train other listeners, with encouraging results. 3 I have had many collaborators, and it is only right to recognize them here.
I field-tested my first revision with congregational leaders at Sonrise Baptist Church in West Jordan, Utah, in the summer of 1985 stretching into spring of 1986. These eleven adults were patient with many problems, and I learned much from them and their struggles. After I shared some of these adventures at a meeting for local clergy, the Reverend Tom Ashbrook asked me to train his leadership team at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Sandy, Utah. These twenty-seven adults offered many hel